blackshoe, on 2012-April-03, 08:26, said:
I think we may be establishing precedent of the form "the rules say X, but when people do Y instead, the rule changes to "X or Y". Do we really want to do that?
Not really, but the problem is that 'alternative' methods of passing (tapping the table, picking up the bidding cards...) are so common that one has to do something.
This was discussed and the EBU came up with this ruling because there were a couple of cases where:
- a player had clearly intended to pass in the passout seat
- they had done so in some non-approved fashion (e.g. picking up the bidding cards, in one case tapping the table and saying "stick" or something similar)
- they then changed their mind about their final pass in a non-25A manner
TDs weren't sure whether to let them change the pass or not, because technically that hadn't in fact passed, so technically it seemed they should be allowed to make whatever bid they liked. It seemed unfair that someone who wasn't obeying the rules initially ended up in a better position than someone who was correctly following the bidding box regulations, hence the guidance that a TD may interpret an action as a pass.
We didn't want to start writing 'will' interpret it as a pass, because then you start having stupid discussions about what if someone was picking their bidding cards up because there was water spilled on the table, or they were drumming their fingers not passing or....